[2024] A Beautiful Specimen: A Short Story (An Ominous Hour)

On one of the upper floors of an apartment complex downtown, Alice keeps a secret. It isn’t hidden in a closet or in a dresser drawer, but in a spacious bathtub. As she comes home from a long day of work and hangs up her keys, she hears it thumping against the porcelain in anticipation of her return.

Alice isn’t at all what she seems. Worse yet, she’s ready to move to the next stage.